Headrested



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A

Al Kubeluis

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Hi Benters, I finally made a headrest for Corsa, which has fiberglass M5 seat. Very happy and
comfortable on 26 mile cold weather ride. It's positioned so that with a slight back tilt of head,
head is against headrest. With head in normal position, head is off headrest. Used it on smooth
roads, bumpy roads, and rough chip and tar roads and liked it on each surface. Headrest may be aid
to pedaling technique. Have you noticed benters heads swaying or bobbing especially when riding
hard? I do this somewhat. When I first used headrest, I felt my head coming on and off pad and
somewhat bothersome. After a while, as I stopped the head motions, and using the headrest was smooth
and comfortable. The rumble on chip and tar road had a neck massage effect. Headrest is a safety
device also as it helps to protect against whiplash. Headrest is wood strip bolted to seat and pad
strapped to post. No pictures. I will try various pads, shapes, heights, forward reach and maybe get
fancier post. Fun to make and no cost, as headrest made from scrap around house. I held off on
headrest as I got mixed feedback as to their pros and cons. Commercial headrests cost from just
under $100 to well over $100, and you still have to drill holes in your seat to mount it. I can
chuck this one if I don't like it and have no wallet burn.
--
Al Kubeluis ~ Bacchetta Corsa ~ Maryland ~ USA ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 
I made a headrest for my first Greenspeed and plan to make one for my new one. Just too ()&()*^()
cold right now.

I used small PVC pipe which slides into the seat supports (they are capped on Greenspeed). I heated
and bent the PVC in three places. Then you can put on a pad. Easiest is to use one of the swimming
"Noodles". as the hole in them is just right for the pvc pipe.

On my first one, I used the dense foam from a SPA pillow. Cut the pillow and superglued it tightly
around the PVC.

I sold that Greenspeed to a gentleman in Kentucky. I bet he still has that headrest and maybe lurks
on the newsgroup.

Bill West Lafayette IN.
 
"Al Kubeluis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Hi Benters, I finally made a headrest for Corsa, which has fiberglass M5 seat. (snip)

Al, I have a Strata reclined almost all the way and would be interested in the details of your head
rest. I too have lots of "scrap" around the garage and a passion for your kind of budget :).

Ellis Edenfield
 
Al I built one from hard plastic half inch water pipe last spring for my wishbone. I bent it with a
heat gun and tried it with the seat reclined for a couple of rides. It did support my neck but I
found it too rigid and got a lot of vibration in my vision so I removed it and just set the seat up
all the way. This winter I found a better solution. I found some "flexpex water pipe. It is flexible
enough to work into a hoop shape cold but stiff enough to resist my neck and head flopping, although
I do have a 2" foam pad that bears on the tailbox. We'll see how it does when the weather warms up.
Dave "Al Kubeluis" <[email protected]> wrote in message news

> Hi Benters, I finally made a headrest for Corsa, which has fiberglass M5 seat. Very happy and
> comfortable on 26 mile cold weather ride. It's positioned so that with a slight back tilt of head,
> head is against headrest. With head in normal position, head is off headrest. Used it on smooth
> roads, bumpy roads, and rough chip and tar roads and liked it on each surface. Headrest may be aid
> to pedaling technique. Have you noticed benters heads swaying or bobbing especially when riding
> hard? I do this somewhat. When I first used headrest, I felt my head coming on and off pad and
> somewhat bothersome. After a while, as I stopped the head motions, and using the headrest was
> smooth and comfortable. The rumble on chip and tar road had a neck massage effect. Headrest is a
> safety device also as it helps to protect against whiplash. Headrest is wood strip bolted to seat
> and pad strapped to post. No pictures. I will try various pads, shapes, heights, forward reach and
> maybe get fancier post. Fun to make and no cost, as headrest made from scrap around house. I held
> off on headrest as I got mixed feedback as to their pros and cons. Commercial headrests cost from
> just under $100 to well over $100, and you still have to drill holes in your seat to mount it. I
> can chuck this one if I don't like it and have no wallet burn.
 
> Headrest is wood strip bolted to seat and pad strapped to post. No pictures.

Can you take and post some for us?

Derek
 
"Al Kubeluis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Headrest is wood strip bolted to seat and pad strapped to post. No pictures. I will try
> various pads, shapes, heights, forward reach and maybe get fancier post. Fun to make and no
> cost, as headrest made from scrap around house. I held off on headrest as I got mixed feedback
> as to their pros and cons. Commercial headrests cost from just under $100 to well over $100,
> and you still have to drill holes in your seat to mount it. I can chuck this one if I don't
> like it and have no wallet burn.

I made a headrest for my Baron from 1" aluminum stock, 1/4" thick. I welded it together to make a T
shaped bar. I bent a piece of thin stainless steel stock into a bracket which is bolted onto the
seat by drilling a couple of holes. The bracket is bent so the center leg of the T will slide into
it, leaving the top of the T above the seat back. It has a tab bent out at right andgles, on each
side, with the holes to bolt to the seat. A single hole in the center of this bracket, with a nut
welded to it and a thumbscrew to tighten down, holds the T in place after adjusted to the right
height. I cut a sloted hole at the bottom of the center T leg and use a single bolt through the seat
to hold the bottom of the T and still allow for the height adjustment. A piece of a foam, swimming
pool noodle is taped onto the top of the T for a pad.

This works very well, looks good(I used yellow foam and duct tape for my yellow Baron) and was vey
cheap and easy to make. I adjust the height so my neck will rest on the pad, right under my
helmet. Like Al, I find that the rest is not really needed for the normal riding position of my
head but it is sure nice to be able to put my head back and relax on those long, smooth, straight
stretches of road. It also really drives my riding buddies, on DF bikes, crazy when I do this,
while whistling a tune.

Harry Jiles
 
Hi Ellis, You likely have a Rans mesh seat, so my M5 headrest method won't work. Or do you have M5
seat? http://recumbents.com/mars/links.html is a great club for do-it-yourself benters. I got ideas
from them. Al Kubeluis ~ Bacchetta Corsa ~ Maryland ~ USA ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "Ellis
Edenfield" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Al Kubeluis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> > Hi Benters, I finally made a headrest for Corsa, which has fiberglass M5 seat.
(snip)
>
> Al, I have a Strata reclined almost all the way and would be interested in the details of your
> head rest. I too have lots of "scrap" around the garage and a passion for your kind of budget :).
>
> Ellis Edenfield
 
I built a headrest for my t-bone in the following way: I took about 10" of 1" wide thin aluminum bar
stock and bolted it to the back of the M5 seat with two bolts, nuts, and larger fender washers. The
bar extends about 5" above the seat and to it I hot glued a square of 1" thick open cell high
density foam. I hand painted the whole thing black. the angle of the headrest may be adjusted my
removing the bar and adjusting the bend as desired in a vice. There is a certain amount of flex in
the whole system which is good as any stiffer would transmit too much vibration to the vision.
Vibration to vision is problematic and I'm hoping that eventually I won't need it.

Chris
 
An Alternative: Buy a $30.00 Optima Headrest! They do make one that bolts onto their M5 style
Hardshell seats. Seems like a better investment than butchering a Hardshell with a homemade
headrest...just in case you ever want to sell the bent.
------------------------------------------------
"dave is here" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Al I built one from hard plastic half inch water pipe last spring for my wishbone. I bent it with
> a heat gun and tried it with the seat reclined for a couple of rides. It did support my neck but I
> found it too rigid and got a lot of vibration in my vision so I removed it and just set the seat
> up all the way. This winter I found a better solution. I found some "flexpex water pipe. It is
> flexible enough to work into a hoop shape cold but stiff enough to resist my neck and head
> flopping, although I do have a 2" foam pad that bears on the tailbox. We'll see how it does when
> the weather warms up. Dave "Al Kubeluis" <[email protected]> wrote in message news
>
> > Hi Benters, I finally made a headrest for Corsa, which has fiberglass M5 seat.
Very
> > happy and comfortable on 26 mile cold weather ride. It's positioned so
that
> > with a slight back tilt of head, head is against headrest. With head in normal position, head is
> > off headrest. Used it on smooth roads, bumpy
roads,
> > and rough chip and tar roads and liked it on each surface. Headrest may be aid to pedaling
> > technique. Have you noticed benters heads swaying or bobbing especially when riding hard? I
> > do this
somewhat.
> > When I first used headrest, I felt my head coming on and off pad and somewhat bothersome. After
> > a while, as I stopped the head motions, and
using
> > the headrest was smooth and comfortable. The rumble on chip and tar road
had
> > a neck massage effect. Headrest is a safety device also as it helps to protect against whiplash.
> > Headrest is wood strip bolted to seat and pad strapped to post. No pictures. I will try various
> > pads, shapes, heights, forward reach and
maybe
> > get fancier post. Fun to make and no cost, as headrest made from scrap around house. I held off
> > on headrest as I got mixed feedback as to their pros and cons. Commercial headrests cost from
> > just under $100 to well over $100,
and
> > you still have to drill holes in your seat to mount it. I can chuck this
one
> > if I don't like it and have no wallet burn.
 
I attached a pvc pipe to the seat support and taped a polystyrene ball to the pipe. I rest my head
on the ball. The pipe is long enough to provide enough spring to insulate my head from road shock.
The bike is a fully and lushly suspended low racer, so this might not work on a rigid bike. The ball
is the size of my head, so I can turn my head by rolling it on the ball.

My beer drinking buddies want me to cover the ball with tan leather. Then the ball and my bald head
will look like a certain dangling portion of the male anatomy as I ride down the road.
--
Bill "Pop Pop" Patterson Retired and riding my Linear my suspended front drive lowracer and our
M5 tandem.
 
Joshua You're right I wouldn't want to modify my seat on an idea that may not work. I slipped the
pipe into the end of the Aluminum seat tubes of my Wishbone. It was a press fit.

I think I spent about $3 US for the parts. I posted a picture of it about two or 3 weeks ago.
http://www.doctorvision.com/wishbone/wbskin1a.jpg The Wishbone seat seems like it is a lot more rare
than the optima or carbon m5 seats. Thanks for replying, Dave "Joshua Goldberg"
<[email protected]> tried to explain an alternative:
> An Alternative: Buy a $30.00 Optima Headrest! They do make one that bolts onto their M5 style
> Hardshell seats. Seems like a better investment than butchering a Hardshell with a homemade
> headrest...just in case you ever want to sell the bent.
> ------------------------------------------------
> "dave is here" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Al I built one from hard plastic half inch water pipe last spring for my wishbone. I bent it
> > with a heat gun and tried it with the seat reclined for a couple of rides. It did support my
> > neck but I found it too rigid and got a lot of vibration in my vision so I removed it and just
> > set the seat up all the way. This winter I found a better solution. I found some "flexpex water
> > pipe. It is flexible enough to work into a hoop shape cold but stiff enough to resist my neck
> > and head flopping, although I do have a 2" foam pad that bears on the tailbox. We'll see how it
> > does when the weather warms up. Dave
 
"Al Kubeluis" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Hi Ellis, You likely have a Rans mesh seat, so my M5 headrest method won't work. Or do you have
> M5 seat?

Al Nope, you're right. Should have read your message more closely.

Thx

E llis
 
My beer drinking buddies want me to cover the ball with tan leather.
> Then the ball and my bald head will look like a certain dangling portion of the male anatomy as I
> ride down the road.

If this happens, no pictures please!!

Bill Patterson <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I attached a pvc pipe to the seat support and taped a polystyrene ball to the pipe. I rest my head
> on the ball. The pipe is long enough to provide enough spring to insulate my head from road shock.
> The bike is a fully and lushly suspended low racer, so this might not work on a rigid bike. The
> ball is the size of my head, so I can turn my head by rolling it on the ball.
>
> My beer drinking buddies want me to cover the ball with tan leather. Then the ball and my bald
> head will look like a certain dangling portion of the male anatomy as I ride down the road.
 
Bill, These are better..less angst if they get too close to the asphalt. Mitch..avert your eyes
http://www.thenutshop.com/ bill g

Mitch wrote:
>
> My beer drinking buddies want me to cover the ball with tan leather.
> > Then the ball and my bald head will look like a certain dangling portion of the male anatomy as
> > I ride down the road.
>
> If this happens, no pictures please!!
>
> Bill Patterson <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> > I attached a pvc pipe to the seat support and taped a polystyrene ball to the pipe. I rest my
> > head on the ball. The pipe is long enough to provide enough spring to insulate my head from road
> > shock. The bike is a fully and lushly suspended low racer, so this might not work on a rigid
> > bike. The ball is the size of my head, so I can turn my head by rolling it on the ball.
> >
> > My beer drinking buddies want me to cover the ball with tan leather. Then the ball and my bald
> > head will look like a certain dangling portion of the male anatomy as I ride down the road.
 
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